Bengal Opposition Leader Suvendu Adhikari has launched a scathing attack on the Mamata Banerjee Government for playing fraud while preparing Other Backward Castes (OBC) lists by mischievously enlisting the Muslims and eliminating or keeping out the Hindus from the report.
Referring to a survey conducted by the State Government — in the backdrop of its submission before the Supreme Court that by the month of July the State would complete a fresh survey to identify the OBCs — Adhikari said “the Government is preparing a completely phony Muslim specific report. This illegal act is being done at the instance of (Chief Secretary) Manoj Pant who is getting the BDOs and the Imams to include only the Muslims in the list and even in that case new fictitious communities are being created to fill up the survey report where the other communities including the Hindus are being ignored.”
The State in an appeal before the Apex Court taken three months to conduct a fresh survey after a Division Bench of Calcutta High Court had earlier revoked the OBC status of 77 Muslim communities which were included in the OBC category since 2010. This to the prejudice of a vast section of the OBCs in Hindu and other non-Muslim communities who were not included in the earlier list.
The new survey that will be submitted before the Supreme Court was being conducted by the Mamata Banerjee Government so as to divert the resources from the Hindu OBCs without scientific data, Adhikari said adding “they are creating made-up communities with no social substantiality and existence. This is a clear attempt at appeasement under the guise of welfare, with an eye on the next year’s Assembly elections.”
He said, “here Mamata Banerjee is bragging about bringing 98 per cent Muslims under reservation and there she is accusing the Opposition of going to the Court to stop her welfare initiatives for minorities. This she is doing to polarise and consolidate the Muslim votes that according to the Trinamool Congress account for 33 per cent of voters.”
On his social media handle, Adhikari posted images of one Sk Lutfar who has been identified as “Muslim Darji” in a prescribed form. “There is no such community and her Government is creating such fictitious and fake communities,” he said.
“Annexed herewith are the Forms of the fresh survey in my Assembly Constituency Nandigram. Just look at the names being filled in the column specified for the Community Name, on the Benchmark Sample Survey Form. These ‘community names’ were never ever heard before as existing Communities and are completely make-believe, fictitious and imaginary,” he said.
Incidentally the Chief Minister had last week informed the State Assembly that 2 to 3 lakh vacant posts would be filled up after the legal battle over the quota issue ended.
“She wants to carry this tangle till the elections, if the Government wins then she will claim that she has done a great job for the Muslims — who have however not specifically demanded any reservation from her — and if she loses she will go to the Muslim localities with the message that the Opposition would not allow her to do her bit for them.”
This was a dirty game of appeasement and divisive politics being played by the Chief Minister which was spiked by the Calcutta High Court which wondered as to how a community which constituted only about 30 percent of the total population could have more than 75 per cent of total number of OBCs, Adhikari said demanding the Central Government and central OBC Commission to be made a party to the case.
